Balloon Tricks
'''Balloon Tricks '''is the fourteenth episode of the second season. Plot One quiet morning, Bill and Ben are wondering how to spend the day when Tad arrives and tells them there is a wolf next door. Ben doesn't know what a wolf is so Weed tells him, then the flowerpot men and Tad rush to where the wolf is. The wolf is sticking out from the fence and Tad tells Bill and Ben that is its tail, the three of them look at it and Tad says someone brave has to frighten it away. Ben says he will frighten the wolf away so he rushes through the fence, but when he does, Tad starts laughing and Bill wants to know why, then Ben comes back through the fence and the flowerpot men see that the wolf is actually a piece of fur, Tad has played a trick on them. Bill and Ben are cross with Tad and he explains why he tricked them - he has heard the children from next door talking about a special day where everyone plays tricks and he decided to have that special day today. When Tad hops through the fence back to next door's garden, Bill has an idea - if it is a day for playing tricks, he and Ben can play tricks too. The flowerpot men decide to play their first trick on Gnome so they rush to the shed to look for something to play their trick. Ben finds a bootlace dangling from a shelf so he pulls it down, then a boot falls down on top of him and Bill thinks that is the very thing because they could tie it Gnome's fishing rod with its laces and trick Gnome into thinking he has finally caught a big fish. When Bill and Ben pull the boot, it falls off the workbench pulling them with it. Ben comes out of the shed pulling the boot alone and it is very heavy, but he doesn't know Bill is inside the boot making it heavy and when Ben finds out, he tips the boot over to pay Bill back. Once the flowerpot men have taken the boot to Gnome, Ben ties it to his fishing rod while Bill tells Gnome he has caught a big fish. Bill and Ben then tell Gnome that his big fish is actually a boot and start laughing, they think they have played a great trick and they want to play another one. Bill thinks of a trick to play on Slowcoach so he knocks on his house and asks him if he would like to have a race with a hare, Slowcoach agrees because he would like to prove the old story of the tortoise beating the hare is a wise story too and he asks Bill where the hare is. Bill has even thought how to use the fur that Tad has pretended was a wolf and Ben arrives wearing it disguising himself as a hare. Slowcoach doesn't think the hare looks lively and asks Bill where he and the hare shall race, Bill draws the finish line close to Slowcoach's house with a piece of chalk and even though Slowcoach says it is not very far, he tells Bill to begin the race. Bill counts to three and Ben crosses the finish line before Slowcoach can go one step, then Ben takes off the fur and he and Bill start laughing, Slowcoach realizes he has been tricked and tells the flowerpot men that it's not very nice to play tricks on friends who try to be kind to them. Bill and Ben haven't meant to upset Slowcoach so they decide not to play any more tricks just yet. Bill and Ben decide to find something to do in the cellar, so they go there. Bill and Ben slide down the cellar slide and when they come to the bottom, they see something exciting - a hot-air balloon. Bill wants to know why the exciting thing is tightening the string so he lifts a watering can off the string, then the balloon starts to fly up the slide and Bill and Ben grab hold of the string, now the balloon is pulling the flowerpot men up the garden. When Bill and Ben get back to the garden, they start to pull the balloon down to the ground, then after a few attempts they get it back down. There are all sorts of interesting things inside the basket so Bill and Ben climb in to take a look and as they are looking, the balloon starts to float into the sky, now Bill and Ben are flying. As the balloon flies peacefully in the sky, Bill and Ben see Thistle and decide to play a trick on her so Ben unties one of the sandbags and drops in front of Thistle covering her in sand. Bill finds a horn and starts blowing it, then he decides to blow it to surprise people. First, Bill surprises Scamper and makes her drop some nuts she has found, next he surprises Boo and makes him get stuck in Slowcoach's doorway, then he surprises Slowcoach and makes him think the horn is a call to arms. When Bill blows the horn again, Slowcoach pushes Boo out of his doorway and comes out wearing his old army helmet. No one has seen Bill and Ben in their balloon and no one knows they are playing tricks. The balloon is flying over next door's garden, Bill and Ben decide to get their own back on Tad so Ben finds a megaphone and makes a frog noise into it. Tad thinks there is a huge flying frog after him so he jumps into his pond. Bill and Ben decide to play a trick on Rose now and Ben makes a bee noise into the megaphone pretending to be a giant bee. Bill finds a pair of binoculars and sees Pry through them, Ben makes a bird noise into the megaphone and Pry sees the balloon so she flies over to have a closer look. As the balloon is now flying above the clouds, Pry arrives and asks Bill and Ben if there are flying in a balloon, Ben decides to play another trick on Pry and tells her that the balloon is a lollipop. Pry says that she must have a taste so she pokes a hole in the balloon, all the air comes out and then it falls. The balloon lands close to Weed with a crash and Bill, Ben and all the things fall out of the basket. Weed asks Bill and Ben if they have been playing tricks again and they glumly say that they have. Weed tells the flowerpot men that tricks are all very well if no one gets hurt but sometimes tricks can hurt their friends and sometimes tricks can hurt them. Bill and Ben climb into their flowerpots and are very sorry if their tricks have hurt anyone, but they remember what fun it has been to fly in the balloon so they go to sleep happy after all. Characters * Bill and Ben * Weed * Slowcoach * Thistle * Scamper * Boo * Pry * Rose * Tad * Gnome * The children from next door (mentioned) Locations * The Bottom of the Garden * The Shed * Slowcoach's House * Thistle's Corner * The Kennel (cameo) * The Cellar * Next Door's Garden Cast * John Thomson as the narrator, Bill, Slowcoach and Tad * Jimmy Hibbert as Ben and Boo * Eve Karpf as Weed, Thistle, Scamper, Pry and Rose Watch Category:Bill and Ben episodes Category:Series 2 episodes Category:Episodes written by Chris Allen